Cortland County Fun Facts

Contents

The Finger Lakes region is chock-full of rich history and culture.

In this series I’m sharing with you all the firsts, important historical events, notable individuals, world records, and occasional quirky roadside attractions I come across in my explorations, organized by county.

Here are some fun facts about Cortland County. For random facts about the other 13 Finger Lakes counties, check here:

Cayuga, Chemung, Livingston, Monroe, Onondaga, Ontario, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins, Wayne, Yates.

I know I’m only scratching the surface of all the cool things to know, so please tell me interesting facts to add! You can comment below or send me a message.

And make sure you subscribe to the Finger Lakes Family Fun email list or follow on Instagram, where I’ll be sharing my latest discoveries.

Cortland County Basic Facts

Population: 46,809

County seat: Cortland

Origin of name: Pierre van Cortlandt, first Lieutenant Governor of New York and president of the New York State Constitutional Convention of 1777

Tourism site: experiencecortland.com

Cincinnatus

Elmer Ambrose Sperry

gyrocompass by Sperry — Gyrocompass by Sperry (Photo: Hannes Grobe, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Born in 1860 in Cincinnatus, Elmer Ambrose Sperry is one of the earliest inventors of the gyrocompass (the honor of the first patent goes to a German competitor, two years before Sperry). He founded the Sperry Gyroscope Company in 1910 in Brooklyn.

Cortland

Crown City

Also known as the “Crown City,” Cortland sits on a plain formed by the convergence of seven valleys. Located 1,130 feet above sea level, it is the city at the highest elevation in all of New York State.

Lime Hollow Preschool

Based at the Lime Hollow Nature Center, the Lime Hollow Forest Preschool was the first forest preschool to be certified in the State of New York and still serves as a model for other schools wanting to incorporate more outdoor time and child-led, play-based curriculum.

Shipwreck Amusements

(Photo: Zdeněk Mareček, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

This amusement complex offers outdoor miniature golf, indoor blacklight miniature golf, paintball target shooting and other entertainment. Its claim to fame is a Guinness World Record for the longest miniature golf hole in the world, measured at 140.05 m (459 ft 6 in) on August 19, 2016.

Homer

Andrew Dickson White

Andrew Dickson White, co-founder of Cornell University and its first president, was born in Homer in 1832. There is a historical marker at 81 S. Main Street.

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